Database/Antistatic/Polyquaternium-72
Mostly natural · ISO 16128

Is Polyquaternium-72 natural?

Mostly. Cellulose backbone and coco-alkyl quat chain are natural; hydroxyethyl and glycidyl-ether linkages come from petrochemical ethylene oxide and epichlorohydrin.

INCI namePolyquaternium-72
FunctionAntistatic · Film Forming
FeedstockPolyquaternium-72 starts from wood/cotton cellulose reacted with ethylene…

How we scored it

Cellulose AGU(162,natural) with MS~2.0 hydroxyethyl(petrochemical,88, per this site's method HEC precedent) plus assumed low-DS coco-dimethylammonium glycidyl quat(~0.3/AGU, adds natural coco+Cl and petrochemical glycidyl+methyl): net natural≈223/342≈0.65.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.

Where it comes from

Polyquaternium-72 starts from wood/cotton cellulose reacted with ethylene oxide to give hydroxyethylcellulose, then further modified with a coco-alkyl dimethyl ammonium epoxide. The cellulose and coco chain are natural; the ethylene oxide and epoxide linker are petrochemical.

In plain English

A conditioning polymer for hair and skin products, built from plant cellulose that has been chemically modified with a coconut-derived charged group. Roughly two-thirds of its mass traces back to natural sources.

CosIng definition: Polyquaternium-72 is the polymeric quaternary ammonium salt of hydroxethylcellulose reacted with a coco-alkyl dimethyl ammonium substituted epoxide

Natural alternatives with the same function

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 Asparagine 100% natural origin

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 Aspartic Acid 100% natural origin

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 Capryloyl Hydrolyzed Collagen 100% natural origin

Collagen broken into small protein fragments and attached to caprylic acid, an eight-carbon fatty acid from coconut or…

References

  1. 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
  2. 2POLYQUATERNIUM-72. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  3. 3POLYQUATERNIUM-72. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=POLYQUATERNIUM-72